Boston or NYC?

I had a guest tonight who wanted to guess where I was from. I always enjoy this, as no one ever guesses MN (because no one knows where MN is, they know it's in America but no clue where), so I thought perfect, let him guess! He started out by saying I think east coast... "Am I right?" to which I replied, "I'm not giving you any clues, you wanted to guess." He kept thinking and said "Either Boston or  NY.... I'm not sure.... Boston. You're from Boston." Of course I'm not and I told him so to which he replied, "You're so much different from my MN friends." Of course this was a lie because he doesn't have any friends from MN but I apparently am quite different from his other friends from the Midwest, who are real, and it doesn't surprise me that that's true, especially after the comments from Will, Gregory, and Filipe from last night. I guess I'm just not your typical Midwestern girl.

I had a great table tonight, John and David, who were sitting at the same table as Will, Gregory, and Filipe from last night, table 61. If these past two evening have been any sort of prediction of the future, I'm going to love table 61. Nice, fun people who tip well. John and David gave me a $20 tip this evening for my travel fund. They know that we split tips at the restaurant but told me to keep it for myself. I didn't, but I didn't tell them that. I may provide great service and get on well with my tables, but at a restaurant that's as busy as Ortolana you really realize that you can't do anything without your coworkers. My service wouldn't be what it is if everyone wasn't' always helping me out. I wouldn't have the time to devote to making sure my tables are happy if I didn't have other people running food and helping clear plates and helping refill waters. And I always try to repay them when I can, by helping whenever possible and sharing all my tips. I guess it's really only fair. They do with me as well!

Overall, tonight went much better than last night. I got a pretty good system down for explaining all the unknowns on the menu, I'm learning more about the menu, and not forgetting so many of the particular things about how we do table service at Ortolana. I felt like I did a better job, I think I did a better job, and I wasn't so stressed this evening as I was last night. I made a few tips that I know of but I don't always take payment for my tables so it's possible I made more. Of course this all goes into the communal pot but I enjoy knowing that I'm at least providing service good enough to warrant a tip in a country that doesn't typically tip.

Nothing else too exciting for today. Lounged around this morning, watched some TV, read my book, Skyped my father. That's about it.

Work tomorrow, maybe the gym in the morning. It's Daylight Savings tonight and we're falling back (since it's autumn here) so an extra hour of sleep. Yay! Before you had DST in MN we were 5 hours apart, the last few weeks we've been 6 hours apart, and after tonight we'll be 7. Crazy, isn't it?!

Okay, that's all.

Night! Kisses!

Best!